Coop Le Petit Quartier | An unprecedented project on the point of being born

(Sherbrooke) The race was long. It took eight years of approaches to a group of citizens of Sherbrooke so that their cooperative project is due to the light of day.

Several left the project, including its instigator Richard Painchaud. Others have joined it, some had time to move, more than once. The first shovel of earth has not been given, but they approach the finish wire.

At the end of rue des Semailles, in the district of Fleurimont: a small wood. It is on this accidental area of 9.8 hectares – the equivalent of 18 football fields – that 73 small houses will be fitted out, a community building, a swimming pool, 5 common sheds and a 5.6 hectare conservation area. It takes imagination and effective models to visualize this small district which is for the moment only an old densely wooded agricultural land.

Everything is to be built: the street, the water and sewer infrastructure, the electrical network, the retaining walls, the retention basins and of course the houses. “Here is the first house to visit!” », Lames Guillaume Brien joke, pointing branches arranged in the shape of a teepee, at the entrance to the forest. Guillaume Brien is Managing Director of the Federation of Housing Cooperatives in Estrie. He has supported the members of the cooperative in this project, since the creation of it at the end of 2016.

On June 17, the elected officials of Sherbrooke gave the green light to the small district, a few weeks after a second particular construction project, modification or occupation of a building (PPCMOI) was approved by the Central City Urban Planning Committee. A PPCMO is a procedure by which cities can allow work to be carried out derogating from town planning regulations.

During the meeting of the Council, the municipal councilor Geneviève La Roche, president of the Central Urban Planning Advisory Committee, underlined the tenacity of the porters of this project. “You are pioneers,” she said. We can be proud to finally see this project lead to Sherbrooke. »»

Once the promoter agreement is signed between the city and the cooperative, and the tenders will be completed, the work will be able to start. By the beginning of the fall, hopes the project manager, Frédéric Pomerleau.

A community spirit

This small district will not look like any other Sherbrooke. The houses will be built there in clusters, on average land of 1,300 square feet. They will not have a facade on the street. The houses of the same cluster will rather be linked together by pedestrian paths. Parking spaces – a hundred in total – will be set out away.

The project is inspired by “Pocket Neighborhoods”, a concept popularized by the American architect Ross Chapin which consists in bringing together small houses around a common garden to promote the spirit of community.

While some would find the idea of being picked up on its neighbors, it is specifically what attracted Marie-Josée Martel and Dominique Vaillancourt. To the point of becoming president and secretary of the board of directors of the cooperative.

“I was raised in a rank, in a small municipality of less than 800 inhabitants,” says Marie-Josée Martel.

While waiting for her house – she reserved her land in 2017! -, m^me Martel rents an apartment in a housing cooperative.

The cooperative model ensures that the members are chosen. Anyone who wishes to join it must submit to an interview, even if he pays for the purchase of his house. “We can make sure that people share our values,” said the secretary of the cooperative, Dominique Vaillancourt, who left Gatineau in 2021 to possibly move into the small neighborhood.

The members will also be required to make five hours of volunteer per month.

Even if everyone will have their house, they will share spaces and certain objects, such as tools. “No, it will not be a town!” “, Ensures Guillaume Brien, in response to certain criticisms. Not a park of mobile homes either, he adds. Nor minimaisons, since the area of homes will be greater than 700 square feet.

The houses will be erected on foundations and will occupy 16 feet by 30 feet (4.88 meters by 9.14 meters) on the ground, for an area varying from 720 to 950 square feet.

Almost half of the reserved land

In mid-July, 48 fields out of the 73 were reserved. The project attracts many people from outside Estrie, says Marie-Josée Martel. Several single women, pre -retired and retired, but also some families.

Catherine Simard plans to move there with her 16 -year -old daughter, Marion. His other children, who became adults, will then have left the nest. The small district is the reason which led her to leave Chambly for Sherbrooke in 2019. The start of the work being continuously pushed, she had to buy a house and give up her project. At the end of 2024, she decided to reintegrate the cooperative by reserving the same land as at the time.

The idea of having your own bubble in a community context appealed to it. “Being a sociable lonely lonely is my type!” »»

His move will mark a turning point in the life of the one who exploits a family daycare center. “I know that I will have to close to eventually to go and live there. I am returned there, at the dawn of my 50th birthday. I need to work less and live more. »»

She will also have to say goodbye to her three -storey twin house (around 2100 square feet). “My goal is to live in smaller. I am in material decrease mode. »»

At what price?

The unknown remains the price she will have to pay to acquire her house. The sum of $ 150,000 mentioned at the start of the project has not been holding for several years, with the explosion of construction costs. An issue with which the cooperative must combine, the primary goal of the project being affordability. The houses will be sold 25 % at the bottom of the cost price, thanks to an agreement with the Foundation for the Development of the Cooperative Housing in Quebec which benefits from the financial aid of the Coop Access Proprio.

The final price will be announced after current calls for tenders. Guillaume Brien expects the sale price to be “above $ 250,000”, in addition to the monthly maintenance costs. “For some, it is huge, if not accessible, for others, it is not much,” emphasizes Mr. Brien. Our goal is to allow those who normally could not have [d’accéder à la propriété]. »

This amount does not scare Marie-Josée Martel and Dominique Vaillancourt. “We don’t pay a house. We pay a neighborhood! », Save M^me Martel.